Nobody wants to go there: collapsing empires (e.g. USA) tend to find militaristic escape hatches -- like Germany tried to not so long ago.
Well just in the name of accuracy, Germany's "empire" was not collapsing; it was instead expanding (radically) under the Third Reich. The Germans built their empire from mostly internal consolidation (Prussian based unification, under Bismarck) subsequent to the Holy Roman era, as opposed to outright military conquest of mostly foreign territory (as it was when German based, under Hitler).
In any case, any empire the Deutsch had attained wasn't "collapsing" by running out of inertia. What Hitler sought to address was the economic collapse and subjugation of the German nation at the hands of foreign powers after WWI, as well as the spread of communism from within, and not the inexorable demise of a former or ongoing empire.
Only after this was accomplished did he turn his attention to what could be called empire building, and that was anything but an "escape hatch" maneuver as it was being forged to last for 1000 years from the get-go. If you want to speak of "collapsing empires," it might better point to imperialist Britain -- or even the (former) communist Soviet Union fabricated under Lenin and Stalin.
As for our Americana empire, well, that's another story - one best left lost to our hopelessly pinheaded, capitalist class.
Discussion on:
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